Thursday, November 17, 2011

Busy Friday Of NASCAR TV

There will be lots of TV coverage from Homestead and beyond before the Camping World Trucks race on Friday night. The full TV schedule is on the left side of this page.

Latest news is that Brad Keselowski was fined 25K by NASCAR for his comments about the new Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) system being developed for Sprint Cup Series cars. Keselowski's opinion was that the entire thing was a sham promotion and not effective in changing the sport in any way other than increased cost to teams.

"We made it clear to him that these kind of comments are detrimental to the sport and we handled it accordingly with him,” said NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp in a media statement.

That just might be a topic for Mike Massaro and Ricky Craven on a special edition of NASCAR Now on ESPN at noon. This show follows an hour of Camping World Truck Series practice over on SPEED. Craven has been on the money with his comments and this has really been a breakout season for him as an analyst.

ESPN2 hosts back-to-back Nationwide and Sprint Cup practice sessions at 1:30 and 3PM next with Marty Reid and Allen Bestwick leading the TV teams. SPEED is next and keeps the TV ball right up through the truck race at 8PM.

One highlight of the day is the return to the air of the NASCAR on FOX trio of Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds for Sprint Cup Series practice. After this long off the air, you know Waltrip is going to have a lot to say.

This post will serve to host your comments on the Friday daytime TV coverage. Feel free to add your comment on the production, personalities or content. If you have a question, post it in the comments and we will get it answered ASAP. This is a big weekend for the sport, we certainly appreciate your comments on the TV coverage.

It's common knowledge that this silly fuel injection system won't change the racing one darned bit. NASCAR silencing their drivers will not change the public's opinion. Heck, as long as NASCAR has an Etch-A-Sketch rule book, fans will continue to leave the sport, EFI or not.

I'm no fan of Brad, but technically, he was right on. TBI (throttle body injection) was introduced in 1984 on the Corvette. My new '84' had it. It worked well, but it was phased out when GM went to TPI (Tuned Port Injection) in 1985. The hot new injection system is GDI (gas direct injection) that was introduced several years ago by GM and others. Candidly, I never understood why Nascar went to this new system developed by McLaren. Then again, lots of things Nascar does make no sense to me. Instead of spending tons of money on 'fuel injection', I wish Nascar would hire someone with 20/20 vision to slowly drive around its tracks looking for poorly located hard walls. In a pinch, they could talk to Jeff Gordon. He's been able to find them the last few years. I apologize for the sarcasm, but I get really tired of Nascar fining drivers for voicing their opinions. It doesn't help that Nascar couldn't conclude the obvious when Vickers plowed into Kenseth last week. It really gets old.

I read on Mad Mikie that old carburator something like $600. New fuel injector something like $25,500 and can only be purchased from nascar. Again, as we all know, this is something the race fans wanted. MC

I'd like to add a few comments to my post at 3:57 am. To be fair, there is a lot of money in the current induction systems. The carbs are heavily tweaked within the rules. It's an art to configure the cam that controls the engagement of the accelerator pump on the secondaries that affects fuel mileage. That 30 year old throttle body set up they're going to uses a computer to control the fuel mixture. McLaren developed the package and it supposedly works quite well. I suspect the $25,000 number isn't far off. For comparison purposes, a complete Nascar brake system today costs as much. Even if the throttle body works just fine, my question is, why do it? Everything these teams do costs tons of money. Apperently Nascar hasn't noticed that Red Bull may be gone and Roush/Childress have dropped a team. The move to ethanol was just as suspect. Nascar apparently doesn't understand that some folks won't like you no matter what you do. The last thing Nascar wants is people like Brad correctly telling them that their Baby is ugly. Oh well....

Why would anyone listen an interview with any NASCAR driver or team member.They are not allowed to have an honest opinion and must follow the approved talking points.We get to listen lists of the sponsors names instead of a drivers true feelings.Anyone else think Tony will have a change of opinion about ESPN this week?

In the meantime, I have by strategy convinced my sometime employer that my precence in Miami is critical to achieving world peace so I shall not be dependent upon the World Wide Leader this weekend. I really WANT to see this race, and now I can.

Last year it was Denny Hamlin being fined now Brad. Does Nascar want all the drivers to be robots? Winning robots for sure, but robots no less. After awhile all the driver's interviews start sounding the same and if I hear another driver say his team worked really hard I'm going to be sick!

Brad is right about this so called fuel injection. Why replace obsolete technology with obsolete technology? Throttle body fuel injection is almost like a floatless carb. GDI (gas direct injection) is the latest technology and about 3 or 4 generations past the obsolete crap NASCRAP is mandating. Most of the people who developed throttle body injection have probably retired or died by now. NASCAR and the manufacturers have long justified their activities by claiming it was a proving ground for new technology and then they go from obsolete to obsolete with the fueling system?

So Nascar is 0 and 3 in "secret" fines staying secret. What a load of crap. Just say you fined the dude so your credibility wont be hurt as much.

You want drivers to fight, yet you fine them for their confrontations. You want drivers to race hard and have rivalrys, yet you fine them when they wreck eachother. You want drivers to not be corporate sock puppets, yet you fine them when they speak. The people in charge have no idea what on earth they are doing. I guess thats what happens when you make up rules on the fly.

NA$CAR and Kerry Tharpe are takingfans as idiots by attempting to silence drivers for being honest.Brad only repeated what REAL fansof the sport know. We all knowthat the Beach Boys are taking money from the ethanol lobby andmust do something to make the sport look green.

Wow..nascar is so on the ball. I hear tell that the next generation of engines will allow you to pour water in it to cool it down! Nascar needs to jump on that idea! After all, its only the original technology that Henry Ford used back in the early 1900's.

Nascar wanted the car manufacturers out of the sport, perhaps its time to do so. How can you do R&D when the parent organization is asking you to do technology from 30 years ago?

Well here's yet another fine that will go into the so called Nascar charity fund that NASCAR gets to take off it's tax bill as half the fund gets paid out and the other half goes to salaries, benefits, expenses. Sorry it cost you Brad but if it's any consolation, you are right.

Brad can't speak out from a competitors position or an owners position, but NASCAR has no problem with biased TV announcers that are little more than highly paid hucksters and shills. Oh that's right, they are huckstering and shilling the NASCAR gospel of bring in the money and speak no ill of the regime. Sometimes I wonder how many times a day Tharpe, Darby, Pemberton,Helton, fall to their knee's and pray facing the ivory tower and Lord Brain Dead.

NASCAR thought that 83 and 17 car was a racing deal? With the front tire of the 17 smoking as they gained or held there speed? Turn a blind eye to that, but listen to each drivers comment for any thing that might hurt your sensitive little feelings. Then fine the driver the price of the part that he is complaining about. Perfect at least in your world! If NASCAR was a nation it would be considered a dictatorship and the military that they are so proud of would be figuring out how to liberate it's people! Or at least give them freedom of speech!

And most of all, I'm fed up with France, Helton, Tharp, Darby, Pemberton and the rest of the clowns that are currently running NASCAR. You've taken what was once a great sport and run it into the ground. Hope you enjoy counting your money.

Congress shall make no laws to take away your right to speak freely. Your employer can do what they want. If I go on ABC tonight and tell the world my company's products don't work very well, my company will fire me. Just sayin'....

Not saying they're right, but other leagues fine coaches & players who criticize the league & the officiating. And NASCAR has already warned them. Brad knows this. That isn't to say he was wrong...sounds like he speaks the truth.

"Oh, I'm so excited, happy and thrilled that I won the race. I want to thank my team. They work so hard. I want to thank my sponsors, my teammates and my owner. They're so great."

"The car was great, the tires were great, the pit crew was great, the fans were great, the track was great, the weather was great, my firesuit was great, my water bottle was great, my seat was great, the steering wheel was great, the troops overseas are great, I'm great, you're great and America is great."

The preceding was the NASCAR template for post-race speeches, co-written by Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson. Deviation from this template by any driver will result in a fine.

I bought a new car last month and it has a 3 month subscription to Sirius radio with it. I have been listening to NASCAR radio on it. Nobody on the radio will ever get fined because apparently nobody is allowed to be anything but a cheerleader when they call in or are in the studio. I have never heard this much disinformation since the last presidential election. NASCAR radio on Sirius is the biggest piece of "stuff" I ever heard.

The problem with Nascar is France. How can one human being do so much damage to such a great sport? Driver should be allowed to speak their minds, this is America for crying out loud! Plus, the scripted babble at the end of each race is ridiculous.

ESPN's coverage is horrible, and maybe by reading comments on this blog ESPN will make some changes. Who knows? Does ESPN really care? I hope so.

The really sad part is that instead of keeping the fans Nascar has, and adding to the fan base, they are losing loyal race fans daily. Race fans spend alot of money at a Nascar race. We, the fans, invest in Nascar by attending the races.

The Waltrip's, what can I say? Do I want to listen to them all weekend, NO! Irritating doesn't begin to describe my emotions regarding them in the broadcast booth.

On the positive side, we have a race to watch this weekend! Excluding all the negative stuff, we get to go racing! And that, makes me smile!

This is my third post on this thread. I think Vince (10:45 am) did a nice job of summarizing the feelings of a lot of us old timers. My comments have been on the technical side. One factor that drives the costs of Nascar equipment is that the quantities to be used is very low. The development costs have to be amortized over a very small number of cars and teams. With the EFI system, the fuel mapping software and computer is very complex and expensive to develop. You have roughly 40 teams using it. How many EFI systems will be in existence a year from now?? 200? 300? That's why this stuff is so frikin' expensive. I saw on a News website where Nascar is taking bows for all their 'Green' iniatives. Just great. Nascar really has its thumb on the Sport, doesn't it?

"We went for 50-something years and never had a system to fine anybody for disparaging remarks in the sport," France said during a news conference Friday. "We're the only sport on the planet that had that. So we simply in the last couple of years changed that policy because we thought we needed to.